Βόσπορος

Ancient Greek

Etymology

By ancient folk etymology, from βοός (boós, “cow”) + πόρος (póros, “passage”), referring to a Greek myth (told, for example, by Aeschylus in his Prometheus Bound) in which Io travelled there after being turned into a heifer by Hera (or in other versions by Zeus). (See Io (mythology) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia )

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /bós.po.ros/ → /ˈβos.po.ros/ → /ˈvos.po.ros/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /bós.po.ros/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈbos.po.ros/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈβos.po.ros/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈvos.po.ros/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈvos.po.ros/

Proper noun

Βόσπορος • (Bósporos) m (genitive Βοσπόρου); second declension

1. Bosporus

Inflection

Second declension of ὁ Βόσπορος; τοῦ Βοσπόρου (Attic)

Case / #	Singular
Nominative	ὁ Βόσπορος ho Bósporos
Genitive	τοῦ Βοσπόρου toû Bospórou
Dative	τῷ Βοσπόρῳ tôi Bospórōi
Accusative	τὸν Βόσπορον tòn Bósporon
Vocative	Βόσπορε Bóspore
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

• Βοσπόρειος (Bospóreios)
• Βοσπορίτης (Bosporítēs)

Descendants

• Greek: Βόσπορος (Vósporos)
• → Latin: Bosporus (see there for further descendants)

Further reading

• “Βόσπορος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Βόσπορος in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (2006–2024)
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited, page 1,004